This week's episode of "Gleeman and The Geek" was recorded at the Rock Bottom Brewery in downtown Minneapolis, which broke the streak of consecutive locations within five miles of my house. We were joined by podcast fan Joe Busch, whose girlfriend Kate Agnew set it up as a surprise birthday present and even made cupcakes. They're a great couple and Joe was a fun guest, as we answered mailbag questions from listeners and discussed a wide range of topics.

David Mccarty has to be the choice for worst Twin ever. Wilfong had a solid 1979 season, .313 with 9 HR, 59 RBI, 71 R, and a 114 OPS+ in 140 games.

McCarty played plenty, but just put up awful numbers. His -3.6 WAR is worst in the 51 year history of the franchise and his VORP and WARP3 also put him in the bottom5. That happens when you have a terrible 55 OPS+ while playing first base.

oldtwinsfan

The best example of an ace in the playoffs is Verlander. When in the playoffs, you’re facing elite hitters, not AL central bottom dwellers. The pitch to contact philosophy does not work. You need a guy that has power pitcher stuff (Verlander) and can miss bats. When you don’t miss bats in tight situations, bad things happen. Also, I notice the Yankees (and other teams) have no fear of MN pitchers, so they always have confidence up at the plate b/c they know MN pitchers won’t/can’t strike them out, which is a bit humiliating for guys like A Roid. As a hitter, confidence is a big part of success. Twins have had aces in the past and it served them well; Viola in 87 and Morris in 91. Why do you want to argue with that success?

http://aarongleeman.com aarongleeman

The best example of an ace in the playoffs is Verlander. When in the playoffs, you’re facing elite hitters, not AL central bottom dwellers. The pitch to contact philosophy does not work. You need a guy that has power pitcher stuff (Verlander) and can miss bats.

Justin Verlander has a 5.57 ERA in eight career playoff starts.

Twins have had aces in the past and it served them well; Viola in 87 and Morris in 91. Why do you want to argue with that success?

Frank Viola had a 4.31 ERA in five career playoff starts.

jokin

Frank Viola had a 4.31 ERA in five career playoff starts.

And how’d Jack Morris do?

Pedro Munoz

3.80

Alex

Just to add to the Capps consternation, I read over at the Strib that Gardy did an interview and mentioned the team would like to bring Capps back as closer….My hope is that it is a clever ploy in order to get someone else to sign the closer spot cheaper…Otherwise, it could easily go down as Ryan’s first worst move — giving up a pick and bringing back a guy who’s proven he’s a middle reliever for closer money?

http://twinkietown.com steve hoffman (SHS)

worst Twin ever?

how about Mike Lamb 3B ?

David

Charlie Manuel pinch hit 149 times late in games from 1969-1972. As a recall, it was often Killebrew he hit for, and the purpose was to give Harmon a partial day off. Manuel’s batting average over four seasons with the Twins was .199 in 366 total AB. OPS+ was 53. He played his final two seasons for the Dodgers and was even worse there. He has been successful as a manager, but might be considered the Twins worse player ever.

Worst Twin ever? I don’t think you can consider guys like Brett Boone or Mike Lamb, who weren’t even with the club for a full year. I had almost forgotten how utterly dreadful David McCarty performed while he was with the Twins, and what makes it even more painful is that he was selected third overall in the 1991 draft, ahead of players like Manny Ramirez, Cliff Floyd, Shawn Green, Dmitri Young, and Aaron Sele — ouch! Charlie Manuel performed poorly for the Twins (sort of amazing that he became a successful big league hitting coach before becoming a successful manager), but at least he had one season with a .320 on-base percentage. Backup catcher Jerry Zimmerman was around a long time and was offensively challenged (to put it mildly) but was above league-average defensively. I’ll nominate infielder Luis Gomez, who played for the Twins for four years, 1974-1977, primarily at shortstop. He posted batting averages of .208, .139, .193, and .246 with on-base percentages of .261, .182, .233, and .290. Despite being small (5’8″ and about 150 lbs. dripping wet) he was neither quick or speedy — he was average defensively and stole only 3 bases in 10 attempts for Minnesota. His WAR with the Twins was -1.2, so I think he’s got to be in the mix as one of the worst Twins ever.

David McCarty is an excellent choice. Denny Hocking should be in the discussion as well…extra points given for the massive number of games and PAs he somehow compiled. 800 games, over 2,400 PAs, .252/.310/.351 career line (69 OPS+) . He was Nick Punto before Nick Punto, but he couldn’t field like Nick Punto and didn’t have the speed of Nick Punto.

Jontler

If everything breaks wrong, Butera could conceivably get another 200 to 300 plate appearances this year. At that point, he’ll be less of a joke nominee and more of a real one.

If he remains on the active roster this season (or for the next several, God forbid) I can’t fathom how he doesn’t overtake all other candidates by a healthy margin.

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